Financial cost of gas blast rises

Price tag reaches $200,000, but Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski anticipates final toll of up to $400,000.

April 01, 2011|Christopher Baxter | Of The Morning Call

The costs stemming from Allentown's deadly natural gas explosion has reached $200,000, a city spokesman said this week, though the true financial toll is estimated to be as much as double.

Clearing the debris of the two houses that blew up and demolishing six others gutted by fire cost $143,000, spokesman Mike Moore said. The work was performed by Penmar Services, one of the contractors on the city's emergency demolition list, he said.

The city also incurred $57,334 in immediate costs, down from the roughly $61,000 detailed last month. Nearly half of those expenses came out of the fire department, which spent an estimated $25,341 battling the gas-fueled blaze throughout the night of Feb. 9-10. That accounts for overtime as well as some lost equipment.

Aside from the fire department's expenses associated with the explosion, the city also paid $16,201 for police services, $6,237 for water services, $4,889 for emergency medical services and $8,201 for other services, according to city figures from last month.

UGI Utilities provided the city with an initial check of $50,000 followed by another for $7,334, Moore said. The company also paid $5,000 to the city's fire police, and smaller checks to other EMS and volunteer fire companies, UGI spokesman Joseph Swope said.

Mayor Ed Pawlowski, however, expects street and other repairs to bring the total price tag to between $300,000 and $400,000. He has not yet met with the public works department to discuss what infrastructure repairs will be needed, Moore said.

The February blast leveled two city row homes on the southwest corner of 13th and Allen streets and sparked a fast-spreading fire that destroyed six adjoining homes. Five residents died. Two pieces of a broken, 12-inch, cast-iron gas main are at a New Jersey lab for forensic testing.